Document Type
Honors Thesis
Abstract
One of the hallmarks of cancer is increased vessel growth to feed the tumor’s rapid expansion. The newly formed blood vessels are immature and often leaky due to structural and functional abnormalities. This leads to ineffective anti-cancer drug delivery and provides tumor cells with additional opportunities to metastasize. We propose to develop an in vitro vascular endothelium model and introduce aggressive triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells to mimic the tumor environment, utilizing a Transwell migration assay. The impact of TNBC cells on vessel permeability will be assessed by staining for tight junction proteins, and the migratory capabilities of TNBC cells will be quantified by measuring the fluorescent intensity of migrated cells. Immunofluorescence imaging of ZO-1 proteins reveals disrupted endothelial tight junctions following exposure to cancer for 5 and 24 hours. Consistently, a significant increase in migrated TNBC cells across the compromised endothelium indicates increased permeability of the vasculature. This project provides a benchmark for future studies focused on resealing damaged endothelial junctions to prevent cancer metastasis and enhance drug delivery to a tumor site.
Disciplines
Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering | Cancer Biology
Publication Date
2025
Language
English
Faculty Mentor of Honors Project
Michael Cho
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Al-Noubani, Malak Taysser, "Characterization of Cancer Cell Migration through Brain Vascular Endothelium Model" (2025). 2025 Fall Honors Capstones Projects. 6.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/honors_fall2025/6
Comments
This project was supported by the Potvin Endowment and would not be possible without the mentorship of Dr. Anne Alsup and Dr. Michael Cho. Additionally, I would like to acknowledge the Azab Lab at UT Southwestern for their generous donation of breast cancer cells.